For I will be to her a wall of fire round about, says the LORD: The size of the population may make walls impractical for the city (verse 4), but the underlying cause of its security is that the LORD himself will protect the city. The expression wall of fire would remind readers of the LORD’s presence as a pillar of fire to protect the Israelites at the time of the exodus from Egypt (Exo 13.21-22; compare Isa 4.5). Good News Translation brings out this idea of protection with “a wall of fire around the city to protect it,” while Contemporary English Version has “a protective wall of fire surrounding Jerusalem.”
Wall of fire is a metaphor, but in some languages it may be necessary to change it to a simile, and state the basis of the comparison. In such cases a possible translation model is “I will protect the city like a wall of fire,” or even “I will be like fire surrounding the city [or, Jerusalem] and will protect it just like a wall does.”
The words says the LORD are used in Good News Translation to continue the indirect speech, and are translated as “The LORD has promised that…,” but in certain languages this must be expressed with direct speech; for example, “The LORD has promised, ‘I will protect the city….’ ” In terms of the Hebrew discourse structure, the words translated says the LORD probably function as a marker of the end of a unit. This is indicated in Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation and other versions such as Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, Revised English Bible, Contemporary English Version, Bible en français courant, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch by the closing quotation marks at the end of the verse. The following verse is best understood as beginning a new unit.
I will be the glory within her: The LORD’s presence will be the source of the city’s reputation. As Good News Translation puts it, “he will live there in all his glory.” For the idea of the LORD’s glory being present with his people; compare Exo 40.34; Ezek 43.1-5. Glory in this context probably refers to God’s “greatness and power” rather than to his “radiance” or “brightness.” So translators may say, for example, “Because I will live there, the city will be powerful and great.”
An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• The LORD has promised that he himself will be fire like a wall around Jerusalem to protect it. And because he will live there, the city will be powerful and great.
Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Zechariah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2002. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .